Raipur, Jul 7 (IANS): Korsaguda and Sarkeguda villages in Chhattigarh are witnessing large scale migration as people are fleeing to nearby states, leaving behind their agricultural land, following a midnight gunbattle June 28 between the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers and suspected Maoists and their sympathisers.

Talking to IANS Saturday, Sarpanch of Sarkeguda, Markam Narayan said: "People are terrified after the gunbattle. They have either migrated to neighbouring Andhra Pradesh in search of job or are taking shelter in the house of their relatives."

Due to the mass migration, the paddy has been affected as most of the fields have been left unploughed. This Kharif (summer) season, the area has so far received adequate rains.

Security forces had gunned down 17 suspected Maoists - rights activists and local villagers say they were innocent local people - at Korsaguda village in Bijapur district of Bastar region, about 600 km south of Raipur, June 28.

While six Central Reserve Police Force troopers were injured in the midnight gunbattle, five injured Maoists were also nabbed in the operation, but one of them later succumbed to injuries in hospital.

Fearing that either they will be caught in the wrangles of the state government and the opposition or be harassed by Maoists, people of these two villages have migrated to Andhra Pradesh in search of work, leaving their fields untilled.

According to the Narayan, only a few of the villagers, who hardly have any knowledge about agriculture, have stayed back.